Introducing Rainbodhi LGBTQIA+ Community

Aww. :pleading_face: So wish I could have joined everyone in Sydney, I love Rainbodhi so much and all the work you do Bhante @Akaliko! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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So I’m just loving Anoma’s smile in the fifth photo.

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So am I :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Such a beautifully expressed description of Rainbodhi on vision …I found it very moving to hear of such a loving initiative.
May your rainbow colours shine on and on!

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Yet so many do! I am so very happy for my brothers and sisters! Be strong and proud in peaceful hearts. I am with you in spirit!

Unfortunately, I can’t move to Australia! Well I suppose I could but it’s a quite a long drive!

Seriously, congratulations, with much love. :heart:

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Rainbodhi is growing and you can help!

Time for a little Rainbodhi update. 🌈❤️🥰

New Rainbodhi Groups🥳

Rainbodhi began in Sydney in 2019 (see above) and has since grown into an international community of LGBTQIA+ Buddhists.

We now have groups in:

  • Canada
  • Melbourne (Naarm)
  • Poland
  • Spain
  • Sydney
  • USA.

Visit our Find a Group page to learn more about Rainbodhi’s international groups and their activities.

Community Events, Resources and Advocacy

Over the last four years Rainbodhi has done a lot!

We’ve created an international community of LGBTQIA+ Buddhists through dozens of in-person and online events.

We’ve advocated for our community by producing our inclusivity resource, Welcoming the Rainbow, which has been translated into Dutch, French, Polish, Spanish, and Thai languages. More translations coming soon!

We have also advocated for awareness, inclusion and safety within Buddhist organisations and written submissions for religious discrimination legislation.

We’ve done a lot but there’s still a great deal of work left to do to create safer and more inclusive Buddhist spaces.


Help us Overcome Hate Together

Image: Ven Yodha

Content warning: queer-bhobia

Some Buddhists still don’t understand the need for Rainbodhi.

We exist because LGBTQIA+ people continue to face violence, discrimination, prejudice and oppression all over the world, including in our Buddhist spaces.

In the past, I’ve received death threats for the work I do with Rainbodhi (yes from Buddhists!!).

Only recently, after sharing a Rainbodhi post on my public page, I received a barrage of spiteful messages from people saying that being queer was against the Buddha’s teachings and that queer people are “defective”, “deranged” and “sick”. (Yes, again, from “Buddhists”)

A few other experiences from our Rainbodhi groups in the last few months:

  • Rainbodhi Singapore won a national Buddhist prize for a project proposal but the sponsor refused to provide the prize money because it would “make more people LGBT”

  • Rainbodhi Poland received toxic trolling from Buddhists after advertising their inaugural event

  • Rainbodhi España posts shared to Buddhist groups on FB were declined for being “political”

  • Rainbodhi Naarm (Melbourne) keeps their events private because of concerns of anti-trans vigilante protestors disrupting their sessions.

Recent interviews with queer Buddhists by Dr Stephen Kerry for the Australian LGBTQIA Buddhist Research Project showed that our community regularly experiences harmful ignorance and prejudice in Australian spiritual communities, including being told their identity is inconsistent with Buddhist teachings, and being silenced about queer issues.

Unfortunately, similar things are experienced by our queer Buddhist family around the world.

We are Stronger Together

That’s why Rainbodhi exists; we provide a safe and inclusive place where every part of people’s identity is welcomed, affirmed and loved. We do this together so that people don’t have to face these things alone. As a community we can confront and overcome these challenges collectively, supporting each other to walk on the spiritual path.


Support Rainbodhi's Work

Organisations like Rainbodhi can only exist with the goodwill and support of our community members. It’s what gives us purpose and makes us strong.

In the past, support from queer Buddhist and allies around the world enabled Rainbodhi to produce and distribute our resource, Welcoming the Rainbow. It’s now been translated into five languages. The booklet played a large role in helping Rainbodhi grow into an international organisation. The generosity our community has shown in the past has truly gone a long way!

This year, Rainbodhi is raising funds through GiveOUT Day, a day of philanthropy for LGBTQIA community organisations.

Help Rainbodhi continue to provide events, resources, and advocacy for LGBTQIA+ Buddhists around the world by donating or sharing our fundraiser

Donations to Rainbodhi will be doubled by GiveOUT.

:point_down: Visit our fundraiser page below :point_down:

(Fundraiser posted with permission)

Positive and supportive comments only thank you

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Wow, amazing how far you’ve come! Congratulations!

:tada: :dizzy:

Keep up the good work, and don’t let the haters drag you down!

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This is appalling. Sadly sometimes people’s prejudices overrides their Dhamma practice.

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A very beautiful effort and expression. Sadhu :pray:t2: :heart:

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Thank you for your amazing artworks featured in Welcoming the Rainbow (and above)

Much appreciation for your continued support of Rainbodhi :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Just amazing, truly. :rainbow:

Just so sad and strange. Imagine being so spiritually bankrupt that you imagine the Buddha would think in this way.

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I got an email in which it says the GiveOUT day is now scheduled a week later.

To provide space after the Referendum, GiveOUT Day has been moved by one week to Thursday 26 October 2023

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That’s right, pushed back a week. So that’s an extra opportunity for folks to donate if they wish!

Another content warning:
queerphobia and trolling hate speech below

In the course of our fundraising campaign we have witnessed a sharp uptick in hate directed at LGBTQIA Buddhists on social media, including on Rainbodhi 's page, plus on the pages of people who have shared our fundraiser.

This has included trolling of the most vile and viscous sort I have ever seen, with dozens and dozens of comments saying things like: “you should kill yourself”; “you’re sick”; “you have mental problems”, along with images of guns aimed at rainbow flags, and black boots trampling on rainbow flags, plus other iconography commonly associated with the alt right.

Another troubling discovery was seeing that some person had bothered to make a video mocking Rainbodhi and our work, and accusing us of trying to “destroy Buddhism.” (Again it’s noteworthy that this was from an alt right account.)

As mentioned above, this hate is coming from “Buddhists”. These are legitimate user accounts and these people are not even attempting to disguise or hide their hatred.

I usually keep this sort of trolling from my team and others but I actually think this needs to be known more widely and spoken about.

This issue is something that needs be acknowledged and solved by the broader Buddhist community together.

So please support Rainbodhi by :

  • caring about and for our community
  • educating yourself about LGBTQIA issues
  • being an ally and standing up for our community
  • sharing the resources on our website
  • sharing our fundraiser or donating if you can.

Here’s the link again:

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:rainbow: Warm greetings Bhante Akaliko, I just wanted to say this is the first post I’ve seen on this forum. :sparkles: I’m already a part of the Facebook group, much metta to you for being part of such an amazing project. Can I please ask if you have any information on how donations will contribute to Rainbodhi? Will these donations help monastics or sangha who support LGBTQ+ people? I haven’t had much time to investigate this great initiative, though it would me much appreciated if someone could get back to me. Thanks so much. I’m looking forward to supporting you all, in whatever way I can! :pray:

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Hi @radiantmetta

Thanks for your interest. We’ve listed what the donations are for on our fundraiser site:

Help Rainbodhi continue to provide LGBTQIA+ Buddhists with events, resources and advocacy.

Often it’s the uninteresting things in life that are the most essential, such as brushing your teeth or paying the electricity bill. Similarly, community organisations have boring but necessary ongoing costs, which increase every year.

Your donation covers ongoing costs such as:

  • Resource development and printing
  • Promotional materials
  • Venue hire
  • Website domain and hosting
  • Email service for e-newsletters
  • Zoom licence for online events
  • Public liability insurance for in-person events

We have six groups internationally, so the aim is to cover some boring operational expenses and if there are donations left, we will have a little pot of money allocated to each of the international groups to use for things like publishing our resources in different languages, hosting events, promotional materials etc.

All our events and resources are offered for free but there are actual costs involved of course.

In the past four years, the costs associated with running Rainbodhi have been carried by a few individuals, but now that Rainbodhi is growing, it’s time to invite our broader community to support our work.

We’ve fundraised before to produce printed editions of Welcoming the Rainbow which brought in a some community support, which was great to see.

We aren’t looking to raise a huge amount. Our goal is rather modest and it will disappear quite quickly, as money tends to do…

No, individuals will not receive any funds, only the Rainbodhi groups and their communities will receive the donations.

You can see our videos, resources and past activities on our website:

https://rainbodhi.org/

Welcome to the forum! Great choice of user name, too. :sparkles::sparkles::sparkles:

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Bhante, I am just so sad to read the extraordinary things that you report above. It seems that you are very brave just to do this work: something that honestly hadn’t occurred to me, because I just assumed that all right thinking people would support inclusion.

Please keep letting the broader community know what is going on and what we can do to keep on offering support.

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Last chance to donate today!

Support Rainbodhi to continue providing events, resources and advocacy for LGBTQIA Buddhists around the world.

Donations are matched by GiveOUT Day! :rainbow:

Rainbodhi’s international groups:

  • Rainbodhi Canada
  • Rainbodhi Naarm (Melbourne)
  • Rainbodhi España
  • Rainbodhi Poland
  • Rainbodhi Singapore
  • Rainbodhi Sydney
  • Rainbodhi USA

Find out more on Rainbodhi 's website:

https://rainbodhi.org/find-a-group/

Thanks to all the folks from the forum who have donated so far. We have had a lot of queerphobic trolling of Rainbodhi in the last few weeks, so your support means a great deal. :gift_heart:

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